Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday assailed President Obama’s handling of the latest crisis in Iraq, saying targeted airstrikes near the Kurdish regional capital of Irbil won’t protect the United States from a growing Islamist militant threat.
{mosads}Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the president has willfully ignored advice from his own national security team who had called for more a more aggressive military posture in Iraq and Syria over the last three years.
“This commander in chief has no strategy, he has no vision,” Graham said during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.” “This is a situation where he knows better than everybody else.”
The remarks come three days after Obama ordered the strikes in northern Iraq, where members of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria are holding thousands of refugees under siege on Mount Sinjar.
Before leaving for a two-week family vacation Saturday, Obama said he would not allow the United States to be dragged into another war.
But Graham said Obama’s effort “to avoid a bad news story on his watch” was putting Americans at risk of an attack.
He said Obama refused to heed a call from advisers to become more engaged in the unrest in Syria three years ago. Graham said Obama’s decision to remove all combat troops from Iraq was made over the advice of those who warned some should remain as “an insurance policy.”
“This is just not about Baghdad this is just not about Syria. It is about our homeland,” Graham said. “If we get attacked because he has no strategy to protect us, then he will have committed a blunder for the ages.”